Hey, y’all! I hope everybody is having a fabulous week so far! I’m now back to my regular schedule and attending classes after a much needed fall break. It’s not even close to Friday yet and I already miss having time off! This year was actually Kent State’s first fall break ever. You would think it would have one like the other big schools like Ohio State University and Miami University. But they’re now finally allowing students to enjoy a four day long break from studying! Although there are still plenty of deadlines due once we all come back ....

For fall break, I got the chance to go to Sparta, New Jersey to visit my aunt, uncle, and two cousins. It was such a fun weekend spent with them since I don’t get to see them that often. One of the best parts about the visit was spending one whole day in New York City with my aunt and uncle! Although I’m more of a Chicago girl, NYC is definitely one of my favorite places to visit. There’s just so much to do and see, so you can never be bored. What also love is that it’s a very diverse city, which makes it great for people watching! Although we didn’t spend more than one day in the Big Apple, we still got the best out of it and managed to find the city’s best treasures.

We left New Jersey around 9:30ish and it took us about an hour to get to NYC. It was windy and chilly outside since we parked closer to the river. But then we walked over to Times Square, one of my favorite places to explore and snap pics, and the buildings blocked out the wind. After observing Times Square, we made our way to explore Bryant Park. There’s not much to do there, but it’s a great place to hang out during your work break and chat with some friends. It was very sunny and mild outside, so we decided to take Chipotle to go and ate at the park near the gorgeous fountain. It was the perfect day to eat outside. Not too hot or too cold, not overly crowded (although we had to sit near the steps because all the tables were taken), and a delicious steak burrito bowl makes it even better!

One of my favorite things that we did during our time was visiting the Rosé Mansion, which runs from July to October (so go now before it leaves!!!) My aunt was telling me all about it beforehand and how it’s so perfect to get cute pictures for Instagram, and she was totally right! The two of us went (my uncle decided to go to a bar and let us have some “girl time”) and spent about a little over an hour trying different kinds of rosé and taking fun, silly pictures. It was basically like going to a wine tasting event, but with more rooms based for quirky photoshoots. We took so many cute pictures and boomerangs, it was hard to choose what to post!

Rosé all day!

We met up with my uncle at an Irish pub before going out again to explore and shop a bit. We stopped by Pasta Loversfor dinner before going to see Pretty Womanon Broadway. It was so fun and a surprise for me, because my aunt and uncle didn’t tell me that we were going until the night before. It was such an outstanding show and so worth seeing! If you are a fan of the original movie with Julia Roberts, you would absolutely enjoy the musical performance!

To end the perfect day, we stopped by Dunkin Donuts to pick up a few donuts - my aunt and uncle’s special post-Broadway show tradition - for the ride home and we were back on the road to New Jersey right after. The busy Manhattan traffic held us back for almost an hour, but it wasn’t that bad when we got a view of the beautiful city skyline on our way out.

I want to send a HUGE thank you to Aunt Mindy and Uncle Mark for taking the time out of their busy schedules to spend time with me in NYC, as well as the rest of the weekend in New Jersey! I love you guys so much and I’m so grateful for this past weekend. Thank you for a wonderful fall break!

Me and Aunt Mindy at Bryant Park!

Have you visited NYC? What are your favorite spots and treasures to check out? Let me know in the comments for some future recommendations for my next visit!